The Cerberus Project
by aimeedaralyon
Summary: ONE-SHOT. Cornelius Fudge tried to protect Harry and Dumbledore the best he could. He did, he really did. Written for the Houses Competition round 3: Forgotten Heroes.


**House: Eagles**

**Class: History of Magic**

**Category: Standard**

**Prompt: [Character] Cornelius Fudge**

**Words: 1116**

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**The Cerberus Project**

Cornelius Oswald Fudge was many things but a coward. People thought he was well-meaning, nice but also arrogant and a pushover. Not many people knew, but he really did care for the magical community, a lot. He was sincerely worried when Harry had brought back the body of Cedric Diggory and claimed that You-Know-Who had returned. As soon as Harry had said the words and refused to let go of Diggory's body, Cornelius had known that the boy was telling the truth. Unfortunately for him, he could not publicly accept this young boy's words. He didn't accept because that would lead to an unforeseeable panic, a general decay in shops and financial revenue and people would live in fear while they could be blissfully ignorant. Until it was absolutely necessary, Cornelius Oswald Fudge was not going to make the information public, he was going to protect the wizarding community the best he could, in the utmost secrecy.

As soon as he got back to his office he thought about which of his most trusted aurors would be perfect to handle this job. Mad-eye-Moody would do an amazing job, but people would miss him too as he was quite well-known in the Ministry. From the fairly new recruits, the Head-Auror said that Savage and Proudfoot were very capable, but he wanted people that he knew to be unwavering, people who never doubted their duty. Cornelius needed the ones who were steadfast in their quest for justice and he knew just who to ask.

Natalie Adams, Charles Webster and Lewis Reid entered his house in the middle of the night.

"Why don't we have a seat in the living room," Cornelius suggested.

No answer sounded from any of the three and they silently followed their Minister to the living room. When all three had received tea from the house-elf, Reid was the first one to speak.

"Minister, if I may be blunt," the man with bright blond hair said.

Cornelius motioned Reid to say what he wanted and then took a sip from his tea.

Reid nodded and sat on the edge of his seat. "What do you expect from us? I know that you have chosen us to do something, but I'd rather be told the factual version than the sugar-coated version, sir. If you don't mind," Reid said while pointing at the tea in front of them.

"Yes, I see. This is the most delicate situation you will encounter and before I continue, I want to inform you that you are allowed to decline this project. I know that some of you have spouses children and I wouldn't want to get in the way of that, but the point is this."

Cornelius stopped for a second to look at the eager, wide-awake and bright-minded aurors in front of him. "You-Know-Who has returned." neither of the three faces changed when they heard what he had said, and Cornelius was impressed with how well they maintained their emotions.

"I would like you three, to investigate where he is hiding, go undercover. Do whatever you need to do to take him down. Whatever. I want him destroyed, completely."

The three aurors nodded. "Minister, I accept the task you chose for me," Reid said officially.

"I accept as well," Adams added while putting down her tea.

"I accept the task too," Webster said with honour written all over his face.

"Thank you, Reid, Adams and Webster. For future reference, this project will be known as Cerberus, like the three-headed dog as you are a team of three. Also I want to remind you that you only report to me. That means that no one, including your loved ones, can know of this. In return, I will promise you that whatever happens to any of you and me, I'll make sure that your loved ones know the truth. A letter will be sent to your home when one of you has passed the veil, they can open the blood-seal with a drop of blood."

The aurors all agreed and when all agreements and arrangements were made, they left, leaving Cornelius alone in his house.

The next morning, Cornelius sent an owl to the Daily Prophet with the order of a story that has to entail the disproving of Harry Potter's and Dumbledore's words, to make sure that his aurors could work in the safest environment he could offer. And if that meant losing the image of a well-liked Minister with guts, then that was the price Cornelius had to pay to keep the wizarding world safe.

The following months, more and more stories were published that kept on discrediting Dumbledore and Harry for months, his heart was broken at the loss of his image and Dumbledore's friendship as Dumbledore had chewed him out, claiming that he was blinded by the love of his office, while everything but was true. However, Cornelius knew, one day he was going to tell them how his plan and his aurors had saved them all.

Months had passed when his aurors finally came to him with an elaborate plan of how to get Voldemort to react to a setup. It was a fairly safe and foul proof plan and Cornelius had never hoped to get this far. They had been working around the clock to make sure everything went according to plan, when a mass breakout from Azkaban was reported and Cerberus was too late to execute the plan safely. The death eaters had created a protective barrier around You-Know-Who and it would take months and months of work to figure out how to get everything in place with new and more players in the playing field.

Additionally, when not four weeks after the Azkaban outbreak, The Quibbler posted a detailed interview from Harry Potter, written by Rita Skeeter, Cornelius knew it would become very hard for the plan to succeed. He had accepted his own image to be degraded to lying and vain but now, his whole plan seemed to fail and he had nothing to show for it. Though, he could live with that fact, he could not bear to tell the people his plan had failed and he had exposed them to great danger while doing so.

When the news of a collapsed Millennium Bridge came to Cornelius ears, he knew that he would never be called a hero. Instead, he would be called, like Dumbledore had proclaimed, the one who stepped aside so You-Know-Who could take over.

Whilst walking to the Muggle Prime Minister's office, he felt anger boiling, anger and defeat for he had tried so hard to keep the wizarding world safe, and he had failed miserably.


End file.
